Develop new audiences

Attracting new audiences requires experience in applying research to create new content, products or services.

It involves much more than naming ‘target audiences’. We find out the interests or needs of customer groups, then suggest ways to satisfy them.

Broadening the impact and importance of an organisation’s work can involve a few hours’ work or major redesign over a longer period.

‘Patricia worked with Boroondara City Council on three projects over three years, to improve our communication to ratepayers and residents. We changed the format of the newsletter to focus on local people’s interests and activities. We also changed the ways we related to people making enquiries, especially with Planning Services, to anticipate and directly address people’s needs.’

Deb Ganderton, Executive Manager Communications and Engagement, Boroondara City Council

The most immersive audience development work was conducted by Patricia as a Fulbright Fellow at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, Washington. She conducted formative research with groups visiting the museum and with a group of university Museum Studies students.

Results shaped the structure of the website and helped decide its name, History Wired. When launched in August 2001, History Wired was overwhelmed with users: many more than any previous Smithsonian website.

A small team of researchers conducted sociocultural analysis as well as audience interviews to assist in the design of the National Library of Australia’s Picture Australia website (now Trove). This website has provided access to the picture collections of many other cultural institutions in Australia. Our earliest work of this kind was with the State Library of Victoria’s Pictoria collection in 1997.

It’s inspiring to work on audience development with creative people and to see innovative services created through this kind of collaboration.